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The Monthly Undergrounder
The Monthly Undergrounder is a counter-culture periodical, referred to as a "hippie magazine" in a phone call from Phil Isidore. In June 1968, this magazine ran an article about The Vanishing, titled "The Original Drop-Outs: The Secret History of the Vanishing" by Colin Anton Ressnak. This article mentions several groups and people who researched the Vanishing, including Celeste Roget and the James Millard Oakes League. The article goes into greater depth on Orrin Oscar Lutwidge. It tells of his background, his strange encouragement of the other conspiracy theorists, and his own disappearance after 1958 in search of "true Rapture". The June edition of the Monthly Undergrounder also featured a reader's letter from Flann McDonagh, who dismissed the idea that all of the vanished were "brilliant" in some way, saying instead that the real connection between them was the belief in Andrew Ryan's capitalist philosophies. In May 1966 the magazine also published an interview with Lee Wilson Seward, entitled "The Grey Ghost of Tangiers." This article mentions that Seward's sister and lover both vanished in 1946. ''There's Something in the Sea'' Mark Meltzer first discovered this article of the Monthly Undergrounder in June 1968 after receiving a phone call from Phil Isidore that mentioned the article about "The Vanishing". This led Mark to research the possible connections between the Vanishing and the kidnapping of young girls all around the world, including his own daughter Cindy, in 1967. After Mark received the "Rise, Rapture, Rise" album in July, Lutwidge's quote in the article, "true Rapture," made Mark question whether Lutwidge might know the location of the "Rapture" where the vinyl disk had been made. This led to Mark's investigation of Lutwidge. Later, during Phase Three, Mark read the interview with Lee Wilson Seward to find out more information about the "Grey Pawn". Article Fragment Transcripts "The Grey Ghost of Tangiers" |} "The Original Drop-Outs: The Secret History of the Vanishing" Many suspect the Vanished are simply individuals who became disgusted with modern society and became the original Drop-Outs - heading back to nature or assuming new lives in more relaxed exotic climes. But that simple answer hasn't numerous researchers from developing some pretty florid theories that neatly fit the axes they prefer to grind. For example, some claim the Vanished are victims of a Soviet plot, a calculated wave of assassinations intended to eliminate a generation of bright young thinkers, thus hobbling the West's edge in science and culture. Still others - the optimistic types - believe that the Vanishing wasn't a conspiracy but a movement. They say the Vanished founded a new utopia far from home where they could share their unique gifts. The more mystically inclined (like French heiress Celeste Roget) dare to imagine they packed off for Shangri-La. And then there's the cautionary tale of Orrin Oscar Lutwidge. An eccentric scholar who consulted with various conspiracy researchers, he himself vanished mysteriously after vowing to find "true rapture." |- |style="text-align:right"|'(cont'd page 19)' |} Article about Orrin Oscar Lutwidge kookier than JFK assassinations theorists, further out than flying saucer buffs, the small circle of "Vanishing" researchers includes some pretty unusual characters. One of the oddest was Orrin Oscar Lutwidge. Orrin Lutwidge was best known as an inventor. His real passion was building mechanical puzzles but his fiendishly difficult devices never caught with toymakers. Instead, he made a tidy sum developing patented concepts for manufacturing, including dozens of innovations for the printing and reproduction industries. Like a less ambitious Buckminster Fuller, Lutwidge was a restless polymath, dabbling in numerous fields. He authored books and articles for young readers; he allegedly con sulted with the U.S. government on code- breaking during World War II; and of course, he pursued his on eccentric research into "The Vanishing." Being Lutwidge, he did it in his own uniquely baffling way. For most of the "true believers," The Vanishing is a bit like a psychologist's inkblot test. When the look into the inexplicable abyss that this missing mass of people left behind, they see some exotic never-land here on Earth. The paranoid see dark government agents at work. And right wing nutters, inevitably, see the Commies. Lutwidge, apparently, saw all these possibilities — and more. He corresponded with Celeste Roget, providing dozens of links amplifying her post- Blavatskian notions of Ascended Masters and lost Himalayan cities. He wrote letters to the James Millard Oakes League, offering behind-the-Iron-Curtain whispers from samizdat newsletters, hinting at coordinated plans to eliminate the West's best minds. He quietly forwarded news-clipping about missing individuals to the Tuggles, extending their ever- growing list. But Lutwidge never, ever offered up a theory of his own. Instead, he seemed to throw his full support behind whatever theory his most recent correspondent believed. Maybe he was being guarded; or maybe he was just being polite. Or possibly it was just a symptom of the insanity that some claim overtook Lutwidge in his later years. Between 1956 and 1958, Lutwidge's correspondence became increasingly erratic, laced with frag- ments of poetry, nonsense phrases and references to children's literature. In one of the last letters he ever wrote, he claimed that no on would hear from hi, again until he had found "true Rapture." No one know exactly what he meant. All that's clear is that shortly after he wrote that cryptic phrase, he disappeared without a trace — leaving projects half-complete and business arrangements in utter disarray. He had vanished as utterly as any of The Vanished. In The Bag :::: IN THE BAG Fringe Thinking I'll admit your piece on The Vanishing ("The Original Drop-Outs," June '68) was fascinating but I, for one, can't figure out what the flippin' mystery is. My uncle vanished during this time period. Now, everyone always claims that the "best and brightest" were taken. That sure doesn't describe my Uncle Bill (unless by the "best and brightest," you mean the brass fittings he insisted on using in all his plumbing jobs!) But my sainted uncle does share something in common with many of the other "Vanished." He was one of the hundreds who fell under the spell of fat-cat Andrew Ryan's B.S. phi- losophy. Ryan was notorious for his screeds against the Church, the State and anyone who would rob a man of "the sweat of his brow." It's been clear to me for a long time that a bunch of these "Ryanist" buffoons — possibly including Ryan himself — packed off to parts unknown and put their "philo$ophy" to the test. My guess? The narcissistic found out the hard way that self-interest (i.e., "greed") is a lousy foundation for a society. Long may they rot! ::::::::Flann McDonagh ::::::::: Brooklyn, NY Gallery File:Grey ghost.png File:Grey ghost2.png File:Undergrounder12.png File:Undergrounder14.png File:Undergrounder22.png File:Undergrounder23.png File:Undergrounder5.png References Category:There's Something in the Sea Category:Pages with written transcripts